Geneseo Summer Academy: Live and Learn on Campus

Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Alla is Chair of the Department of Art History and Museum Studies at SUNY Geneseo. Her research focuses on feminism, activism, material culture, and the DIY movement in North America and Eastern Europe. She enjoys creating innovative projects with her students, including digital humanities archives and online exhibitions. Her most recent edited volume, Contemporary Art Across Political Divides: Difficult Conversations, was published in 2023. In response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Myzelev is editing a book titled Challenging Imperial Narratives Through Visual Art and Material Culture in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and is completing a book on Soviet men's fashion from the 1940s to the present. In addition to her academic work, she is an active curator. Outside of work, Myzelev has three dogs and enjoys hiking and biking with one of them—a lively labradoodle named Klaus.

Lytton Smith is a poet who sometimes writes about video games, sports, and travel; he also translates novels from Icelandic and visits there as often as he can, sometimes with a Geology/Creative Writing Study Abroad program. His research/teaching interests include poetry, environmental writing, science communication, and citizenship studies.

Aaron Herold is an Associate Professor in Geneseo’s Department of Political Science and International Relations, where he teaches classes on political theory and constitutional law. He is also the coordinator of the legal studies minor and the co-director of the Forum on Constitutionalism and Democracy, which sponsors campus programming about political philosophy and constitutional issues. Originally from Philadelphia, he went to college at Emory University and graduate school at the University of Toronto and the University of Texas at Austin. He is an expert on the American constitutional tradition and the philosophers that inspired it, as well as on the writings of Alexis de Tocqueville. His first book, The Democratic Soul: Spinoza, Tocqueville, and Enlightenment Theology, was published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 2021. He enjoys hiking, watching sports, reading history, listening to audiobooks and podcasts, vacationing in Maine, and spending time with his kids.

Ahmad Almomani is a math professor at SUNY Geneseo and has been teaching there since 2017. He got his Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Clarkson University, where he focused on solving tricky math problems using optimization (finding the best solution) and hybrid algorithms (mixing different methods to solve problems). His research is all about using math to solve real-world problems, especially in science and technology. He works on making math tools that help in areas like engineering and computing. Besides research, Dr. Almomani is a highly respected teacher. He has received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. He cares a lot about his students and makes math interesting and useful. One of the coolest things he does is connect math with sustainability—helping the environment and society. He created a class called Sustainability Optimization, where students learn how math can be used to tackle big issues like climate change and resource management. Through his teaching and research, Dr. Almomani inspires students to see how math isn’t just about numbers—it can help solve important problems in the world!

Wendy Owens Rios is a Lecturer in the Department of Biology. She specializes in Ecology and has degrees from SUNY ESF (Environmental Biology), Michigan Technical University (Forestry), and Rochester Institute of Technology (Environmental Science). Her research includes work on wetland restoration around landfills. Originally from the suburbs of Rochester, she served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay as an Agroforestry Volunteer. Outside of work, she loves her dogs, loves to travel internationally, is an amateur nature photographer, and hikes and downhill skis.